Margaret Fuller was a feminist before the feminist movement ever started. She looked down on women who held inferior roles in a society and urged women to develop their talents. Fuller envisioned that men and women could have equal partnerships that could range from marriage to government and even business (The American Experience).
Fuller questioned whether love is “a mockery and marriage a sham” (Levine B: 742). This quote basically reaffirms her idea that women are more than just housewives and mothers but can have careers and be productive in society outside of the home. He book “The Great Lawsuit” became an integral part of the feminist movement in the United States.
Judith Sargent Murray advocated for cultivating “Independent, intellectual alert women” (Gura A: 738). The essay “On the Equality of the Sexes” stated Murray’s
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This reference is to Eve and basically Eve’s seduction was not about sexual desire but about gaining knowledge (Vindications in America).
Both Fuller and Murray were feminists who believed that women were equal to men. In reading Poe’s “To Helen” and “Annabel Lee”, I believe that they would be offended by how Poe portrays the women in these poems. In “To Helen”, Poe describes Helen’s luxurious hair and describes Helen as “the glory that was Greece”. The woman in the poem was close to Poe, a friend of his mother’s but the description talks about her as almost an idol.
In “Annabel Lee”, Poe describes the death of a beautiful young woman and the love she had for the narrator. Fuller and Murray would not appreciate the line “And this maiden she lived with no other thought, Than to love and be loved by me” (Poe B: 643). For Murray and Fuller, this would be completely opposite of their ideas that women had an important place in society and should not just be the inferior part of a